May
24, 2002
Boram
Lee '04 Wins International Public Policy Fellowship
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
Boran
Lee '04 on duty at Blanchard's information desk
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On
April 1, Boram Lee '04 of Kenmore, Washington, opened a letter
announcing that she had been awarded a prestigious Institute for
International Public Policy (IIPP) Fellowship. The first person
she called was her mother. Says Lee, whose friends call her Bo,
"I didn't think I'd get it because it's really competitive,
but my mom was not surprised for some reason."
Evidently, Bo's mom
knows Bo.
The IIPP Fellowship is "a very valuable package," according
to Katya King, MHC's assistant director of fellowships and scholarships.
It consists of a five-year sequence of summer policy institutes,
study abroad, language training, internships, and graduate study.
As well as enjoying the opportunity to study in a foreign country
and learn on the job, Lee values the networking possibilities
offered by the award. "One of the things about this fellowship
that's really helpful," says Lee, "is that you end up
making a lot of contacts with people who are involved in international
affairs."
From Lee's post behind
the information desk at Blanchard Hall, where she works eight
hours a week, the politics major described her future. This summer
she will study international affairs at Clark Atlanta University,
a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia. Then Lee jets
off to Paris, where she will spend her junior year studying at
France's famous Sciences Po, L'Institut d'études politique
de Paris, the finishing school for French bureaucrats, including
President Jacques Chirac.
Following Lee's year
in Paris, she will set up an internship with the help of the IIPP
before returning for her swan song at Mount Holyoke. Lee may complete
another internship through IIPP after graduation, or she may go
directly to graduate school, for which the fellowship will provide
$15,000 in funding as well as assistance in securing a matching
grant. She says she is thinking about law school.
Atlanta, Paris, law
school, and beyond: none of it is likely to surprise Lee's mom,
nor will it come as a shock to her adviser Stephen Ellenburg,
professor of politics, who says, "Boram has a nimble intellect
and is wonderfully adventuresome… she is a conscientious
contributor to our commonweal." Ellenburg also points out
proudly that Lee is responsible for the resuscitation of Mount
Holyoke's water polo team.
Lee, who was born
in Korea and came to the United States at the age of two, doesn't
yet know what life beyond graduate school will hold. She speculates,
"I think it would be interesting to work in development.
There are a lot of Third World countries that are extremely tied
to international organizations like the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank. I might look more critically at their
policies and how the policies affect these countries."
The IIPP Fellowship
program prepares students for careers in international affairs.
Students, who apply as sophomores, have shown a strong interest
in international affairs and are members of "underrepresented
minorities." IIPP scholars are selected by panels of United
States ambassadors, deans of schools of international affairs,
graduate school admission directors, foundation executives, and
IIPP alumni.
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